From the Pyrenees frontier town of Sort to the western Andorra border, Republican troops to-day forced peasants to evacuate their arms in driving rain and snow to permit 15,000 Republicans to prepare for a last stand against about the same number of Nationalist troops under Gen. Juan Solchaga. is troops continued their eastward mitch toward Puigcerda in an effort to close the last of three gateways to France while the Republican defence line across the Rio Magdalena River hoped to obstruct the push at Seo de Urgel, midway between Sort and Puigeerda.
Meanwhile Nationalist Armies on the southern end of the front were bogged in mud south of Alcala de Chisbert.—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.